A city of souls

I'm trying not to let the search for work, take me away from the experience of being in India. Sometimes it happens but more often than not this country wouldn't even need to try and remind me of where I am because every time I step outside of the house, I'm faced with the amazing craziness, whether I want it or not. Actually, it feels wrong to use: "faced with", because that's sounds like I'd rather not encounter this world. So instead I'll use "shown". Yes. I'm shown the amazing craziness. Even still, after 2 whole months of being here!

The past 2 weeks or so, I've been getting more familiar with this world. The traffic, the transport, the pace, the awareness. Also the way I'm being perceived, the approach I can take and the approach others can have towards me. It's like I'm becoming accustomed to their way of thinking, which makes life so much easier for me. I can suddenly have an understanding for the way they view me and I can be openminded enough not let it get to me. I can be apart of everything, if I'm in the right frame of mind. As I've been venturing around the city, independently, on a more frequent basis and been loving every minute, I've realized that I never have to doubt that I won't get to where I'm going, even though others might do just that. I can just hop-on and hop-off a bus, like everybody else. I can be stared at and be amusing to others and not care one bit! I can be open to conversation and yet cautious to keep a distance.

Each day I can search for jobs, attend interviews, work on my writing and then come out of my shell, step outside the frontdoor and seek some new inspiration by just sitting on a bus, gazing out the "window" with the hot polluted air blowing in my face. It might not sound too good, but it makes me feel so free! The buzz in the city and the life on every corner, always reveals something new to my eyes. Even roads I've been down many times before, can give me new impressions. These impressions are from the people itself; their work, their behaviour, their driving, their eating, their interaction, their homes. Never is there nobody insight! And never is there nothing to take in! Nowhere is ever empty..

Sometimes, as I sit on the bus and gaze at the city passing by, I try to count the number of people either standing at a busstop, or at a fruitstand, or a teastall, or sleeping on the streets. Just a number is what I'd like to come up with. But it's not possible. There are too many souls to count, all with a different life, from a different background, with a different home and family. They look to be so similar, but every individual has their own tale to tell. But they more than likely will never get the chance to tell it, for how could they? They are one individual amongst the millions and millions that fill this city and land. Nevertheless not unimportant, as they help form the web that makes everything possible.

Thinking and observing so many souls, I then sometimes, as I sit on the bus and gaze at the city passing by, try to picture the streets without any people. I would envision them to be empty. I would see all these souls, for only an instant, to be gone. What would it be like? Would the impressions still be there? Would this India still be the same? Would it still fill me with amazement or would the absence of people also make my amazement disappear? It would certainly change my view. Everything would be different. Because it’s the people that make up this country.

Realizing this, makes me wonder why I should ever become frustrated by those people who can form obstacles along the street, or by those who overcharge me as I'm supposedly "well-off" (or so they have led themselves to believe), or by the thousands of locals who turn their heads to see the western girl on the overcrowded which costs 0,06 cents for a 40 minute journey? Why curse the traffic? Why question the stares? It's pointless! Especially when wanting to go out and be taken into the fast-pace citylife, effortlessly. It gives inspiration and experiences that are only to be encountered right here, due to the amount of lives that somehow can live united in their diversity. By this I mean the different souls, classes of society, religions and beliefs that all pull together and make this world what it is: The inspiration every Westerner should be aware of, when given the chance to witness their world.